The present invention is in the field of network information services including data gathering and transmission over wired and wireless network connections and pertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for monitoring changes to aggregated data in real time and notifying user/subscribers of such changes over user-prescribed mediums and connected devices.
The information system known in the art as the Internet, and the Internet subset known as the World Wide Web (WWW), is the largest publicly accessible source of information in the world. Anyone with an Internet-capable appliance and an Internet connection can navigate the Web to access virtually any type of data that may be held in any one of millions of network-connected servers adapted for the purpose.
The most usual network appliance used for navigating the Web and downloading data therefrom is the personal computer (PC). More recently however, a host of other electronic communication devices have been adapted for network connection and navigation on the Internet. Some of these better known devices include cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDA""s), pagers, and notebook and laptop computers. Some types of these appliances access the Internet via wireless connection. In other cases, data from the Internet is transmitted to such devices through a gateway to a network specific to the device. An example would be that of a cellular phone or pager capable of accessing e-mail and other Internet accounts information.
The Internet operates under a shared bandwidth protocol wherein data packets are transmitted. Each transmission competes with all other current transmissions for available bandwidth resources. The total amount of bandwidth resource available to network appliances accessing the Internet is a function of network traffic, reliability and capability of lines, power of appliance processor, nature of intermediary network, and a host of other variables. It is not always possible to maintain an Internet connection for any reliable length of time considering all of these variables. Sometimes, there are periods when a device simply cannot gain access at all. In other cases physical connection is only possible on a periodic basis, and an appliance is therefore only intermittently connected.
Even with the more powerful and traditional PCs and notebook computers there may be times when available bandwidth suddenly drops resulting in a disconnect or xe2x80x9cmoofxe2x80x9d as it is often termed. If a moof occurs when attempting to download data, another attempt must be made to reaccess the network, re-navigate to the data source, and attempt a retry of the data download. This can be frustrating for users operating such devices as cell phones, pagers or PDA""s which are already operating on high latency and/or low bandwidth connections.
Administrators of network equipment and connection architecture as well as companies that host such as WEB-based information services and the like are improving aspects of communication with various portable network devices by upgrading lines and equipment, developing better data compression and bandwidth reservation techniques and lobbying for more bandwidth for wireless intermediary networks. However, one area that has been largely overlooked is the very format and structure of data that is transmitted. For example, HTML or XML-scripted content is largely unsuitable for transmission under low bandwidth conditions to small portable devices. As a result, such devices having lower memory and operating under lower bandwidth resources are limited to certain types of data such as only e-mail or voice mail.
A system known to the inventor and listed under the Cross-Reference to Related Documents section provides a capability of automated login and navigation to Internet or other network-connected sources for the purpose of retrieving and presenting WEB summaries to subscribers according to client/enterprise directives. This service uses scripted templates prepared by knowledge workers using known site logic to enable navigation, not just to the site, but to specific content posted on the site. A parsing method is then used to identify appropriate data based on the provided script directives.
The data obtained by the above-described method is stored in a server-accessible data repository for user access (via PC), or pushed to a user (PC or alternate appliance) according to enterprise rules. The data is typically presented in the form of a WEB page made accessible to a user having suitable equipment for retrieving and viewing such a page. However, in another embodiment, the data is re-formatted for transmission to a user-specified Internet appliance such as a cell phone, laptop, PDA, etc. The user must typically first access the service using a device that supports a browser interface. Data is then forwarded to alternative devices only on user request, and assuming the user has configured his or her alternative device for the service. In order to receive some types of data, special software and/or hardware changes must be made to the alternative appliances.
The above service does not support independent device access to the Internet (except for devices already capable of browser navigation), nor can it deliver certain content retrieved in a format that is not readily convertible to a format specific to the software running on such alternative devices. Moreover much content that would be convertible may still overload the memory of certain alternative devices, such as pagers or cell phones, if additional data restructuring and synchronization steps are not taken.
It will be appreciated that there is a growing variety of existing and new portable-type devices that are being adapted for Internet access. Most of these devices communicate according to device-specific protocol and are unable to receive and disseminate certain other types of data under normal circumstance. Furthermore, low bandwidth connection states and limited memory provisions preclude many of these devices from broad Internet navigation capabilities and limit download capability in terms of time and type of data content that may be received.
A system known to the inventor and described in the cross-referenced patent application entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Restructuring of Personalized Data for Transmission from a Data Network to Connected and Portable Network Appliancesxe2x80x9d allows data aggregated on a user""s behalf to be restructured for delivery to varied portable devices by either a push or pull method. The data is restructured such that it may be easily stored and displayed according to specific device protocol. User/subscribers may elect to pre-configure a number of devices to the service. Once configured to the service, such devices may be used to synchronize with the aggregated data source maintained by the service on behalf of the user.
A possible problem with this system is that a user must periodically log-on and attempt synchronization with the aggregated data source to see if any new data has arrived. If new data is pushed to a user, it may happen at an inconvenient time such as when a user is engaged in some other important activity with a designated receiving device. In one aspect user notification of new data is posted on a WEB page such as a user""s home page. However, a user must access the page with an Internet-navigation-capable device in order to see if there is any new data.
What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus allowing a user/subscriber to specify events and event triggers that may occur in data specific to the user and maintained for the user at specified Web sites, and for monitoring changes to such data on behalf of the user, and then notifying to the user of the occurrence of such data changes and events over any user-selected and defined medium and communication device. Such a system would be a convenience to a user in that he or she would be conveniently made aware of the existence of new aggregated data and/or specific and user-defined events in data, before having to log on to the service to check for new data, or having other important work interrupted by an unscheduled data-push to an otherwise engaged peripheral device.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention an Internet subscription system for alerting subscribers to changes in data maintained at Internet sites is provided, comprising an input interface for a subscriber to specify a data condition to be monitored and a condition for notification; a gatherer for gathering data changes from one or more Internet sites; a guard for comparing data changes with the condition for notification; and a notification alert system for notifying the subscriber of a change that meets the condition for notification.
In various embodiments of the system of the invention the condition for notification comprises data changes at two or more sites (metadata changes). In some embodiments there is a user-amendable time function to control frequency of access by the gatherer to Internet sites. Also in various the alert system sends an alert by the Internet network to a client""s Internet-connected device. Such an alert may or may not include specific data from the sites in addition to the alert. Alerts may be by the Internet, by message systems to which a user subscribes, or by wireless network to devices not enabled for Internet connection, such as pagers and cell phones.
The system of the invention and methods of practicing the invention are taught in enabling detail below, and provide for the first time a way for subscribers to monitor a very broad range of data, and to configure sophisticated conditions for a service to compare and notify the subscriber of changes in data over multiple sites.